quebec corruption – Macleans.cahttps://www.macleans.ca
Canada's national current affairs and news magazine since 1905Thu, 24 May 2018 18:07:14 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4So, Nathalie Normandeau, about that apology…https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/so-nathalie-normandeau-about-that-apology/
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/so-nathalie-normandeau-about-that-apology/#commentsThu, 17 Mar 2016 22:42:53 +0000http://www.macleans.ca/?p=849209Quebec's former deputy premier attacked Maclean's for its coverage of corruption in Quebec. She is one of seven now facing fraud charges.

Last November, the (deep breath) Commission d’enquete sur l’octroi et la gestion des contrats publics dans l’industrie de la construction released its compendium of greed, graft and wholesale corruption that has long plagued Quebec’s construction industry. It is a fascinating read that in part details how Quebec’s political class co-opted the province’s engineering firms into essentially being fundraising arms for its main political parties. The name of former municipal affairs and deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau appears 175 times.

On Thursday morning, agents from UPAC, the province’s anti-corruption squad, arrested Normandeau on charges of (deep breath) conspiracy, bribery of a public servant, fraud against the government and abuse of trust. Also charged was a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister; Normandeau’s former chief of staff, Bruno Lortie; two former executives with Roche, an engineering firm; as well as two political aides with the Parti Québécois, one of whom worked for ex-PQ leader Pauline Marois.

Tellingly enough, Normandeau’s many appearances in the report outline the scheme through which the Quebec Liberal Party became flush, and a select few of the province’s engineering firms got the lion’s share of government contracts. A sample:

-Normandeau attends a Liberal party fundraiser, organized by contractor Lino Zambito. Also in attendance: executives from the biggest engineering firms in the province, who donate heartily (and illegally, more on this in a second) in order to, according to testimony by former Normandeau press attaché Michel Binette, “gain access to cabinet,” “advance their projects” and “gain influence over government decisions.”

-Normandeau testifies that the unwritten rule among Quebec Liberals was that each minister had to raise $100,000 a year. She goes over and above, raising a total a total $747,318 between 2005 and 2009. Normandeau’s chief of staff, Bruno Lortie, actively solicits funds from said engineering firms—causing, in the words of the commission report, “serious conflict of interest questions.”

-Zambito, who owns construction company Infrabec, donates a total of $126,000 to the Quebec Liberal Party, mostly through Normandeau and Lortie. He also gives Normandeau nine tickets to a Céline Dion show, two tickets to see Madonna, and 40 roses in celebration of Normandeau’s 40th birthday. Normandeau responds with the mother of all mash notes. The gesture “greatly touched me,” Normandeau writes. Zambito later testified that everything, roses included, was done in the name of “business development” for Infrabec.

-Infrabec scores a $28-million contract for a water purification plant in Boisbriand, a Montreal suburb.

Preferential treatment, pay-to-play ploys, fundraising quotas, business development disguised as cheap sentimentality: it’s all here, under Normandeau’s name. It is therefore difficult to overstate the significance of her arrest. Up until now, UPAC has only netted a handful of engineers, lowly civil servants and party bagmen, mostly at the municipal level. The commission report itself landed with a thud and indifferent reaction from the current Liberal government. Former Quebec premier Jean Charest, whose government (reluctantly enough) created both UPAC and the commission, has so far remained unburdened by its investigations.

But Normandeau is different. An articulate hyperpartisan, she was a rising star in the Quebec Liberal Party. She was the linchpin of Jean Charest’s infrastructure and energy policies. As deputy premier, she became one of his closest confidants—so much so that, according to former Liberal MNA Marc-Yvan Côté, it was Charest’s office that recommended Lortie be Normandeau’s chief of staff. (Coté couldn’t be reached for comment. He, too, was arrested in the UPAC sweep Thursday morning.)

It remains unclear why Normandeau was arrested this week, though UPAC investigations head André Boulanger intimated that it had to do with contracts awarded to Roche, an engineering firm, when Normandeau was minister. The company, Boulanger said at a press conference shortly after Normandeau’s arrest, “donated to political parties, and there was necessarily a return on investment throughout the years that ensured [the company’s] financial health.”

Interestingly, it was during the formative years of Charest’s government the Quebec Liberal Party became a money harvesting machine, thanks in large part to what are known in these parts as “straw man donations.” Corporate political donations are illegal in Quebec; Roche, like any other company, cannot give money to a political party. In order to get around this pesky state of affairs, businesses would often strongly urge their employees to make the donations in their own name, with a promise of reimbursement.

The scheme was designed by Parti Québécois bagmen, so as to circumvent the party’s own political financing law, which the René Lévesque government instituted in 1977. Both PQ and the Liberal governments availed themselves of it, though under Charest (and, especially, Normandeau) the Liberals became ferociously adept at employing it.

Between 1998 and 2010, according to an industry report, the executives and employees of Quebec’s 10 biggest engineering firms donated $13.5 million to political parties in the province—60 per cent of it to the Liberals, 36 per cent to the PQ, and four per cent to the ADQ, a defunct conservative party. In the hyperpartisan realm of Quebec politics, circumventing electoral law has been a decidedly non-partisan affair. (Two PQ politicos, including a former attaché of former premier Pauline Marois, were also arrested Thursday.)

But back to Normandeau. Under Charest, she was also the Liberal’s designated attack dog. In 2010, this magazine published a cover story outlining Quebec’s myriad issues concerning corruption. The piece, entitled “Quebec: The most corrupt province,” was aimed squarely at the province’s political class. Its political class was suitably piqued. Charest sent the magazine an angry letter, while federal MPs in Canada’s Parliament voted in favour of a motion expressing the House’s “profound sadness” in the article and accompanying cover image.

Normandeau was particularly theatrical. “Maclean’s should apologize to all the people of Quebec… Maclean’s is attacking our institutions, our history, our symbols,” Normandeau said during a press conference, at which she brandished a copy of the magazine. (She paid for it, presumably.)

About a week later, Normandeau and I appeared on Tout Le Monde En Parle, a weekly talk show. In front of a televised audience of more than one million people, she asked for an apology from Maclean’s once again.

Tony Accurso testifies before the Charbonneau Commission on Tuesday September 2, 2014 in a frame grab from the video feed. (Handout, Charbonneau Commission/The Canadian Press)

MONTREAL – A powerful former construction magnate who entertained union leaders and politicians on his luxury yacht began testifying Tuesday at Quebec’s corruption inquiry.

Tony Accurso took the stand after commission chair France Charbonneau rejected his bid for a publication ban as the inquiry resumed after a summer break.

Accurso, once the owner of several influential construction companies, had argued that testifying at the inquiry would jeopardize his right to a fair trial in pending criminal proceedings. He feared his appearance would taint potential jurors.

But Charbonneau maintained that Accurso was sufficiently protected, notably because the commission would not question him about details involving his upcoming criminal trial.

Accurso faces criminal charges in several municipal corruption cases and is also charged with tax fraud.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently dismissed a request that would have allowed Accurso to not testify at the inquiry. He also lost similar legal battles in Quebec courts.

During his first day of testimony, Accurso discussed a 1980 meeting with Louis Laberge, who once led the powerful Quebec Federation of Labour.

He said he was afraid to meet with Laberge, who along with other union leaders was imprisoned for refusing to comply with back to work legislation during a public sector strike in 1972.

“To come face-to-face with Laberge, during those years, it’s was really something,” he added.

Laberge, who died in 2002, was also one of four QFL presidents who had gone for trips on “The Touch,” Accurso’s yacht. The others were Michel Arsenault, Henri Masse and Clement Godbout.

In an earlier appearance before the commission, Arsenault testified that he returned an expensive Christmas present his wife received from Accurso in 2008 — a $12,000 pair of diamond earrings — because he felt uncomfortable with the luxurious gift.

He also insisted he paid for every penny of renovations worth $97,000 to his own home, even as wiretaps seemed to suggest that Accurso would be paying for part of it.

Arsenault, who also oversaw the QFL’s billion-dollar Solidarity Fund as well as heading the union, was repeatedly asked whether there was a conflict of interest in holding both positions.

He admitted there was an interest in pushing for Accurso’s companies to succeed because the fund was heavily invested in them.

The inquiry has been examining the QFL, its publicly-funded investment fund, and the type of sway people tied to organized crime had with administrators of the union’s construction wing.

Charbonneau noted the size of the audience for the controversial Accurso’s appearance on Tuesday, joking out loud that she wondered what could have brought so many people out.

A relaxed and sometimes smiling Accurso began his testimony by talking about his start in the construction business, his involvement in university football and his engineering studies.

He said he started working for his father’s construction company when he was six and continued working summers while studying engineering at Montreal’s Concordia University.

At one point, prosecutor Sonia Lebel asked Accurso to talk about his father’s setback in 1964, when he was found guilty of collusion and corruption. Accurso said he didn’t know anything about it and the matter was dropped.

Accurso eventually took over the business from his father.

When the inquiry resumed its hearings, Lebel also explained the direction it will take before it submits its report in April.

She said the commission will examine contracts awarded by Hydro-Quebec and the Crown utility’s relationship with engineering firms.

The inquiry has already heard from more than 100 witnesses since it was formed in 2011.

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/general/former-montreal-cop-waives-right-to-bail-in-gangsterism-related-case/feed/1Quebec’s anti-corruption unit credits mayor for latest sweephttps://www.macleans.ca/general/quebecs-anti-corruption-unit-credits-mayor-for-latest-sweep/
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 21:23:44 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=448704MONTREAL – Quebec authorities are calling it a first — an elected official denouncing people after being the target of alleged corruption.
The province’s anti-corruption squad, known as UPAC, is…

]]>MONTREAL – Quebec authorities are calling it a first — an elected official denouncing people after being the target of alleged corruption.

The province’s anti-corruption squad, known as UPAC, is giving Chateauguay Mayor Nathalie Simon full marks for filing a complaint with police this past September.

The mayor was hailed as a hero Thursday as the unit announced four arrests in a corruption sweep in the working-class town south of Montreal.

Police allege the four men were trying to corrupt Simon with money and personal favours in exchange for decisions that would lead to influential positions within the city’s administration or to land being re-zoned for development projects.

The men are expected to be arraigned in February on charges that include fraud against the government, conspiracy, municipal corruption and breach of trust.

More arrests may be forthcoming.

UPAC chief Robert Lafreniere said Simon’s bravery was key to ending the corruption strategy that targeted her administration.

“We have benefited from the extremely rare yet exemplary co-operation of an elected official,” Lafreniere told a news conference.

“Nothing can be held against Ms. Simon. To the contrary, she honourably denounced an unacceptable situation.”

He noted that Simon is the first elected official to come forward in such circumstances.

Lafreniere said Simon’s name was made public because in part it would be clear who was being targeted.

He said it was important to highlight the “exceptional character of the present case” and that he hoped Simon’s actions would encourage other politicians to follow suit.

Police afforded Simon the protection they felt was necessary, he added.

The province’s anti-corruption czar said things are improving in the fight against corruption but that it will take a lot of effort to change a deep-rooted culture.

“It’s clear that some people haven’t gotten the message — in a case like this we’re not talking about allegations from 2007 or 2008, we’re talking about 2013,” Lafreniere said. “So we say we need to be alert and vigilant.”

A summary of the unit’s corruption-fighting efforts for 2013 will take place next week.

]]>Quebec’s anti-corruption squad raids home of sister of ex- Liberal fundraiserhttps://www.macleans.ca/general/quebecs-anti-corruption-squad-raids-home-of-sister-of-ex-liberal-fundraiser/
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:52:20 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=447666MONTREAL – Quebec’s anti-corruption squad says it has has raided the home of the sister of a former fundraiser for the Quebec Liberal party.
The squad targeted the home of…

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/general/quebec-transport-excavation-firms-hit-with-996-charges-in-tax-evasion-case/feed/1Montreal police chief says his force has been shaken by arrest of ex-officerhttps://www.macleans.ca/general/montreal-police-chief-says-his-force-has-been-shaken-by-arrest-of-ex-officer/
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:57:01 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=430038MONTREAL – Montreal’s police chief says his force has been shaken by the arrest of a former high-ranking organized crime investigator who allegedly conspired with the Hells Angels.
Chief Marc…

]]>MONTREAL – Montreal’s police chief says his force has been shaken by the arrest of a former high-ranking organized crime investigator who allegedly conspired with the Hells Angels.

Chief Marc Parent says Benoit Roberge’s arrest on the weekend came out of the blue and that nobody had any inkling he may have been involved in alleged wrongdoing.

Parent told a news conference in Montreal today he has spoken to about 200 investigators in the last few days to discuss the matter.

Roberge was the Montreal police force’s leading expert on biker gangs, investigating them and testifying at their trials before he retired last year.

His spouse is a prosecutor specializing in organized crime.

Roberge faces four charges, including two of gangsterism, and is accused of selling sensitive information about ongoing police investigations to biker gangs. His bail hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

]]>Letters to the editor: Alberta floods ‘feel like a moment of unity for Calgary’https://www.macleans.ca/politics/letters-40/
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 14:46:00 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=405616On flood clean up, sick days and the benefits of yogourt

It did really feel like a moment of unity for Calgary (“Down, but far from out,” National, July 15): from the second the evacuations started, the prevailing mood was to run down to the lowlands and punch this flood in the balls. Citizens fanned out to flooded neighbourhoods and starting hauling junk and tearing out gyprock without so much as exchanging names with homeowners. At the company where I work, a junior employee had the audacity to suggest that everyone take a sick day to help strangers schlep mud; the boss responded by cutting the workday nearly in half for the entire week. (This in a business that survives on billable hours.) Friends of mine in the trades spent last week in flooded homes, gratis, racing to reach as many wet basements as they could before the fungus did. And meanwhile, with all that black market do-gooderism happening underground, our public institutions were quietly making crisis management look like child’s play. It’s good to live in a wealthy city, which surely mitigated the damage, but also good to live in a culture that can put aside ideology and ego and personal gain to solve a problem.

Geoff McKenzie, Calgary

Wild is the whale

There have been zero known fatal attacks on human beings by an orca in the wild, and the few non-fatal attacks listed include a child that was bumped by a passing orca, and one surfer that was bitten. There have been countless fatal, and non-fatal, attacks on humans by orcas in captivity (“A killer whale gone very bad,” Film,? July 15). This is not a coincidence. Orcas are among the most intelligent species in the world. We know that wild orcas travel in pods, live and travel with their mothers even after they are fully grown, and can live to be 80 years old. Why we think we can take a baby orca, put it in captivity, and ask it to perform circus tricks day in and day out, and not act outside of its nature, is beyond comprehension. I will never set foot in Marineland or SeaWorld. People need to stop going to these places so there is no longer a demand for these shows, and no longer a demand for these whales.

Kristen Richardson, Toronto

The wrath of God

Your detailed, well-written article on eco-terrorism (“Playing with fire,” Special Report, July 15) was followed a few pages later with a story about animal captivity (“A killer whale gone very bad,” Film, July 15). The lessons in both articles are crystal clear, and include how removal from natural environments can create psychosis in mammals, but what about eco-terrorism committed by God, as revealed in the Calgary flood? The Book of Revelation (11:18) says, “God will destroy those who destroy the Earth.” Not only are reckless development of the oil sands destroying the Earth, but so is reckless housing development in forested mountain lands, where beaver habitat was removed in the mountains upriver from Calgary. Beavers were restored to the Rocky Mountains many decades ago to prevent such flooding, and obviously that lesson was lost.

Bob Mosurinjohn, Ottawa

Tilting at windmills

Another interview with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne (Interview, July 15) and still no one is addressing the elephant in the room. Wynne’s vague reference to properly siting energy infrastructure sounds rather benign, but wind turbines and their substations have already destroyed a lot of people’s homes, health and livestock operations over the past seven years due to improper siting. It’s one thing to say you’re going to fix a problem, but there’s already a hell of a mess in rural Ontario that needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

Barbara Ashbee, Mono, Ont.

The limits of democracy

The hope of the Arab Spring was always an extreme long shot, and the unravelling has come about just as many thinking people predicted from the outset (“A state of hope, unravelled,” International, July 15). But that’s not what is troubling: rather, it is the West’s tut-tutting over the fact that a “democratically” elected government could be ousted despite overwhelming popular support for the ousting. In this, the West is being disingenuous. While most would agree with Churchill that a democracy is generally better than the alternatives, it is not heaven-sent and engraved in stone. While we moan that the Egyptian people were wrong to unseat a perceived scoundrel, we would have eagerly supported any German putsch that might have overthrown a locally popular Hitler. And we are most selective in picking which democracy to support, as shown by our rush to endorse a dictatorial China’s claims over an honestly elected democratic Taiwanese government.

Donald McKay, Calgary

Yogourt vs. C. difficile

Thank you for the very interesting report on treating C. difficile with fecal transplant (“Gut of the matter,” Society, July 15). However, this infection can be remedied by natural means. I was infected by C. diff. at age 81, thanks to a rather strong antibiotic prescription to treat a tooth infection. My wife was afraid I was going to die. At that time, fecal transplant had not been heard of and the antibiotic Vancomycin was suggested. Having experienced the potential deadly effect of antibiotics, I decided to try something else and try to re-establish the good bacteria in my system with yogourt. To make sure of having fresh yogourt without preservatives or any other foreign ingredients, we purchased a small yogourt maker (at a price comparable to that of a Magic Bullet) and I ate yogourt twice a day. It cured me and now, nine years later, I have not had it return. I live in good health—and still eat yogourt.

Eddie Bellem, Portland, Ont.

Keeping pipeline money at home

I always get a laugh over how much the U.S. Department of State thinks it knows about Alberta oil sands production. In the article “Keystone pipe dreams” (Business, ?July 15), it is stated that “the Department of State has deemed [extraction of crude oil from the oil sands] to be 17 per cent more polluting over its life cycle” than conventional oil. I wish I could see the esoteric mathematics on that one. As a petroleum engineer in Alberta and as an Albertan in general, I sincerely hope that President Obama nixes the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. so that we can get on with our own solution, keeping the revenue and jobs right here at home where they belong.

Steve Jenkins, Calgary

Nurses know about sick days

I am a nurse, ergo a public employee, and I have the benefit of a banked sick leave system (“The sick day scam,” Business, July 8). I have maxed out my banked days; I can’t save anymore. In a given year, I call in sick between three and five days total. At the moment, I am covered in an itchy rash that is severely impacting my sleep. But it’s not infectious, so despite the discomfort I am going to work. Many of my colleagues are the same. I get tired of these articles that paint a broad-stroke picture of public service workers as a bunch of takers with no consideration for the taxpayer. We are not all like this. Trust me. Many of us are grateful for the privilege of a secure, reasonably well-paid job. We don’t want to do anything to mess it up.

Jane McCall, Delta, B.C.

Oceanic transplant

While I enjoy your quiz page each week (The Challenge, July 15), I’m sure the residents of the Canary Islands, who until now could see the coast of Morocco on a clear day, will be chagrined to learn that their home has been moved to the Pacific Ocean!

Bruce Gillis, Paradise, N.S.

It doesn’t feel that good, actually

You must feel vindicated after the scorn and ridicule Maclean’s received the last time you published an article on the corruption in Quebec businesses and at all levels of government in that province. Many members in the House of Commons, as well as politicians in Quebec, demanded a retraction and an apology for what had been reported. Where are those same politicians now, mute on the whole subject for fear of losing votes? Maybe they could just buy a few, as they have been doing for many years by pouring vast amounts of Canadian tax dollars into that province. I think it is now Maclean’s turn to demand an apology from all those people who were so offended by your first article. You were absolutely right the first time around, and as evidence has proven (“One dirty hand washes the other,” National, July 15), the corruption has continued.

Mulcair says he never reached out to the police himself because he had no proof a bribe was actually being offered at a 1994 meeting with the now-controversial ex-mayor of Laval, Que.

Mulcair, who back then was a political rookie seeking provincial office for the first time, said he never looked to see what was in an envelope offered by then-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

He said he refused the envelope, cut short the meeting, and kept his distance from the powerful mayor of the suburb north of Montreal.

“I never saw cash,” Mulcair said during a session with reporters Tuesday.

“There was never a question of cash.”

At that point it was “absolutely impossible” that coming forward would have resulted in criminal charges, said Mulcair, who is a lawyer.

Media have posted a statement given by Mulcair in July 2011 to police in which he says Vaillancourt repeatedly told him, “I’d like to help you,” while holding up an envelope in his hand.

The statement reportedly quotes Mulcair as saying he discussed the meeting with fellow Liberal Vincent Auclair, to whom Vaillancourt also allegedly offered an envelope.

Mulcair said he was contacted in 2011 by the anti-corruption squad created by the province in the midst of numerous Quebec scandals.

“Once the investigation was started, I was contacted to see if I would help and I was happy to do so,” he said Tuesday.

He said he had no trouble doing his job as a member of the provincial legislature and later a minister in the Charest provincial cabinet because he had refused the envelope.

But the Conservative government isn’t satisfied with Mulcair’s explanation.

“He’s got some important questions to answer to Canadians about what he knew about this corruption, why he covered it up, why he actually lied about having been offered an envelope of cash and these are important things for Mr. Mulcair to come clean with about Canadians,” said government House Leader Peter Van Loan.

He was referring to comments by Mulcair, during a 2010 news conference, that he had never been offered a cash envelope in Laval. He maintains that he never actually had proof he was being offered a cash envelope.

Vaillancourt now faces several corruption-related charges, including gangsterism. He is denying the criminal charges against him and has, in the past, also denied offering bribes to fellow politicians.

One of those alleged targets was Serge Menard, a former federal and provincial MP with the Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois. Menard was allegedly offered $10,000 cash by the mayor in 1993.

Like Mulcair, he was a rookie provincial politician on the verge of winning his first election. And like Mulcair, he says he refused the money, then decided to remain publicly silent about the incident.

Menard, a lawyer, is quoted in a Montreal La Presse report saying that what happened two decades ago is not technically illegal — because corruption laws apply to civil servants, ministers and legislators.

He told the newspaper that the relevant Criminal Code articles don’t make any reference to exchanges that involve regular citizens running as candidates for office — which is what he and Mulcair were at the time of Vaillancourt’s alleged offer.

Events in Laval are now under the microscope at the Charbonneau commission. Police allege that the city administration was run like a criminal racket, hence the gangsterism charges against the ex-mayor.

At the Charbonneau inquiry, a retired engineer confirmed Tuesday that he collected about $2.7 million in kickbacks from participants in a system of collusion that was operating in Laval between 2003 and 2009.

Roger Desbois testified the funds were diverted to Vaillancourt’s municipal party and that the mayor was aware of the scheme. He said he was recruited into the plan in 2002 by Claude Asselin, the city’s former director-general.

Asselin, he said, had done the job before him.

The money came from contractors who obtained work on the city’s sidewalks, aquaducts and paving. The kickbacks were for about two per cent of the value of the contract.

Desbois also worked as a fundraiser for Vaillancourt and said the mayor asked him who was a good contributor and who was not.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly said Vaillancourt was entering a guilty plea.

]]>Quebec inquiry sifts through town likened to a crime syndicatehttps://www.macleans.ca/news/quebec-inquiry-sifts-through-town-likened-to-a-crime-syndicate/
Thu, 16 May 2013 04:40:46 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=384544MONTREAL – It has been likened to a criminal organization and, now, the inner workings of Laval city hall are about to be exposed at Quebec’s corruption inquiry.
The inquiry…

]]>MONTREAL – It has been likened to a criminal organization and, now, the inner workings of Laval city hall are about to be exposed at Quebec’s corruption inquiry.

The inquiry has shifted its focus to the municipality across the river from Montreal, the third-largest city in Quebec.

Laval’s longtime mayor was among several dozen people recently arrested and the charges laid against him were surprising: two involved gangsterism, and one was the charge that he directed a criminal organization, among the most serious counts in the Criminal Code.

The inquiry will spend the next several weeks sifting through Laval’s affairs, after focusing mainly on Montreal in recent months.

A first witness already described, on the first day of testimony Wednesday, contract-rigging taking place among engineering firms.

Jean Roberge was most recently Laval’s assistant city manager, but he was suspended from his job pending his testimony at the inquiry.

Between 2002 and 2007, he was part of a local engineering firm that got involved in the contract-sharing scheme.

He was asked how he could be sure.

“Because I participated in it myself,” Roberge replied.

At the time, the lion’s share of the city’s engineering contracts were entrusted to outside firms. Roberge said he approached by Jean-Marc Melancon — a senior bureaucrat who had been chief of staff to then-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

He said he told Melancon that he wanted his company, Equation Groupe Conseil, to get more lucrative work from the city and get away from the smaller contracts it had.

Melancon allegedly suggested that he pay a courtesy visit to the mayor. He did, but nothing was discussed about contracts.

He said he took away one conclusion from his encounter with Melancon: “If you’re good to politics, then politics will be good to you.”

He soon got a contract worth about $200,000.

After submitting bids, Roberge said he got his first call from Claude Deguise, the city’s chief engineer, telling him he’d won a contract and all he had to do was contact a partner firm and make arrangements. All contracts had two bidders — the minimum required by the city.

After he won two or three contracts, he said, there was “grumbling in the corridors” that it was time to pay up. There was no set amount, but it fell in the 2 to 3 per cent range.

He said the initial amount — $10,000 in cash — went through a notary, Jean Gauthier, and was destined for Vaillancourt’s party, which held all the seats on council at the time.

Roberge said the rigging practice continued until about 2010, when increased media scrutiny and new rules helped root out the illicit bidding.

His first day of testimony focused on his time as an engineering executive. In 2008, he left his private-sector job to work for Laval. He held a variety of posts before being suspended at the beginning of the month in advance of his testimony.

Roberge is the first in a series of witnesses who over the next several weeks will paint a portrait of corruption in that community, said inquiry counsel Paul Crepeau.

He said the witnesses will include elected officials, businessmen, city officials and other professionals.

“The inquiry will detail the system of kickbacks in cash from construction contractors and engineering firms,” Crepeau told the inquiry.

“The structure of this organization will appear very different from the one encountered during the hearings for Montreal.”

Crepeau acknowledged that the exercise would take place in the shadow of a massive corruption bust in Laval just last week.

But he said it wasn’t the inquiry’s role to prove the guilt of those arrested last week.

Earlier Wednesday, last-minute concerns about the credibility of the person intended to be the first witness forced a change of plans.

The inquiry was expecting to hear from Gaetan Turbide, who is currently suspended from his job as Laval city manager.

But inquiry officials said they received information from an “official source” on Wednesday that raised questions about Turbide’s credibility.

Such concerns have been a constant throughout the process — where chronic memory gaps, shifting stories, and improbable explanations on the witness stand have occasionally elicited expressions of frustration from the judge and counsel.

This week, a former political organizer and engineering executive admitted to lying under oath about whether he owned or rented his summer cottage. A day later, he admitted to having swapped a home with a Hells Angels biker.

The admission came after that detail had already appeared in a local newspaper.

Earlier this year, Martin Dumont, whose testimony helped bring down the former mayor of Montreal, also admitted to making up an anecdote.

Other witnesses have repeatedly revised basic details about their testimony after being confronted with new facts during questioning.

The examination of Laval comes after the arrest of Vaillancourt and 36 others in massive corruption sweep. Vaillancourt ruled over Laval for some 23 years and earned himself the nickname the “Monarch of Laval.”

]]>Corruption inquiry seeks 18-month extension, into Spring 2015https://www.macleans.ca/news/corruption-inquiry-seeks-18-month-extension-into-spring-2015/
https://www.macleans.ca/news/corruption-inquiry-seeks-18-month-extension-into-spring-2015/#commentsTue, 12 Mar 2013 00:52:00 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=359301MONTREAL – Quebec’s corruption inquiry has requested a lengthy extension of its deadline, which could make it a potent force in the province’s politics for up to two more years.…

]]>MONTREAL – Quebec’s corruption inquiry has requested a lengthy extension of its deadline, which could make it a potent force in the province’s politics for up to two more years.

The inquiry head, Justice France Charbonneau, has asked Premier Pauline Marois to push the deadline back another 18 months.

Charbonneau says the additional time is needed for the probe to finish its work and make recommendations in a final report.

She indicated the commission’s final report would be available in about two years, no later than April 19, 2015.

The government said in a statement that the request has been sent to cabinet for study and no decision has been made. However, Premier Pauline Marois has already offered a strong hint that she would be inclined to accept an extension request.

The commission was ordered in 2011 by then-premier Jean Charest after intense pressure, and was mandated to produce a report by this fall.

So far, the probe has heard incendiary testimony about rampant corruption in public procurement — with the Italian Mafia, political parties and crooked bureaucrats supposedly involved in a number of schemes.

But the inquiry has focused almost exclusively on municipal politics so far, and has barely dipped its toe beyond Montreal. It prompted the resignation last fall of the mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay, following claims from a witness whose testimony is now under attack.

Observers have speculated for months that the inquiry appeared to be running out of time and would inevitably need to request a deadline extension

A change in the schedule could hold a number of political implications.

The Parti Quebecois has a minority government. The schedule delay could mean that the politically explosive probe is still ticking in the province’s political arena while the government approaches the fourth year of its mandate.

It could extend the life of corruption issues as a defining force in Quebec politics.

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/news/corruption-inquiry-seeks-18-month-extension-into-spring-2015/feed/1Quebec inquiry chair snaps at witness: “Were you stupid and incompetent?”https://www.macleans.ca/news/quebec-inquiry-chair-snaps-at-witness-were-you-stupid-and-incompetent/
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:01:53 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=354974MONTREAL – The head of Quebec’s corruption inquiry lost patience with a witness testifying Wednesday about his relationship with construction bosses.
The former head of Montreal public works, Robert Marcil,…

]]>MONTREAL – The head of Quebec’s corruption inquiry lost patience with a witness testifying Wednesday about his relationship with construction bosses.

The former head of Montreal public works, Robert Marcil, was seen as being cosy with company owners but he wrapped up his appearance on the witness stand by continuing to deny that he knew anything about the collusion and bribes.

He denied accepting money in return for favourable decisions from the selection committees making the final call on contracts.

Phone and text-message records have shown that Marcil had extensive contacts with various Quebec contractors, despite his senior position at city hall.

He was even caught texting what inquiry officials described as sensitive information to one contractor. Marcil denied the accusation, saying it was public information and that he never told anyone about any conflict of interest.

At one point, commission chair France Charbonneau expressed annoyance with him when he said he couldn’t remember if he had contacted a political fundraiser with details from public-works meetings.

“Are you saying that you were stupid and incompetent?” asked Charbonneau.

Marcil replied: “I’m definitely not perfect.”

That prompted another put-down from the judge: “We agree on that.”

Charbonneau has occasionally made wry remarks during testimony. But she has generally refrained from making blunt statements about witnesses, a tactic that triggered accusations of bias during the federal sponsorship probe against John Gomery.

This inquiry has heard that companies that won construction contracts would inflate the costs and share percentages with the now-deteriorating Union Montreal party, along with the Mafia and corrupt civil servants.

Marcil began to sit in on more and more of the selection-committee meetings, even though he was admittedly dining with construction bosses at least two to three times a year. Phone records to his city-issued phone showed frequent chats with them.

He was confronted with telephone records that showed a Union Montreal party fundraiser, Bernard Trepanier, would call Marcil early in the morning just as meetings wrapped up.

Asked if he was telling Trepanier the results of those meetings, Marcil said he couldn’t remember the exact conversations.

Marcil continued to state that gifts for civil servants like wine, hockey tickets, golf and meals had been an accepted practice across Quebec for many years.

Small gifts, Marcil said, were seen as keeping good business relations. He said he also received gifts and handed them out when he worked in private firms.

The engineer had his employment terminated at the city after it came to light that he’d taken a trip to Italy on the dime of a construction boss, Joe Borsellino, of Garnier Construction.

Asked what the difference was between getting cash and having someone pay for the trip itself, Marcil said he viewed someone paying for a trip as a favour.

Marcil maintained that people in positions above his received similar favours and gifts.

Marcil said the trip to Italy was a mistake, but he insisted that he left the city of his own accord in 2009 to join a private engineering firm that had courted him for two years.

The inquiry counsel, Denis Gallant, has said that Marcil left because the Italy trip came to the attention of the city.

Marcil has admitted that he only paid for the flights for himself and his wife. The bill for the posh hotel stays was footed by Borsellino.

Gallant said that Marcil only stepped down after being asked to show proof he paid for the trip. Instead, the engineer tendered his resignation.

Marcil criticized the mayor at the time, Gerald Tremblay, saying the mayor wanted to “score political points” with his departure.

He said that, at the time of his departure, it was agreed that he was leaving as part of a career change. He lamented that Tremblay later changed the story to say he’d “cleaned house.”

Later Wednesday, the inquiry heard from Serge Pourreaux, former director of procurement for the city between 2003 and 2006.

Pourreaux said the city was well aware starting in the late 1980s that construction costs were out of whack with the rest of the province.

“Everyone knew that in Montreal, it costs 25 to 30 per cent more than elsewhere for infrastructure,” Pourreaux said.

“I think everyone knew — the companies knew, the engineering firms knew, most of the city engineers knew.

Pourreaux said the spike was caused by a closed market, strict criteria on work sites and slow payment by the city.

Pourreaux said the public explanations for the price discrepancy were never very good.

“Engineers went from one company to another and they knew about Montreal. It was common knowledge,” he said.

“It was always explained away as Montreal being ‘more complicated.'”

When Robert Abdallah took over as the city’s senior civil servant, Pourreaux recalled between 10 and 15 conversations about the high costs, which he said preoccupied his new boss.

He recalled one colourful quip from Abdallah. He said the city manager once told him: “‘Jesus, Serge, the fact that it costs more to pour a metre of concrete in Montreal than it does to send it up to James Bay makes no sense.'”

Pourreaux said it was also common knowledge that bosses who tried to enter the Montreal market were physically threatened, their homes were vandalized and their equipment was damaged.

Pourreaux said the Montreal public-works department operated in isolation from the rest of the city administration.

He described it as “a kingdom within a kingdom,” which considered itself untouchable. “It was a culture where they were the masters in charge,” said Pourreaux.

]]>Quebec’s foundation of corruptionhttps://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-foundation-of-corruption/
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-foundation-of-corruption/#commentsWed, 19 Dec 2012 11:10:01 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=327367The inside story of the man at the centre of the storm

Lino Zambito is many things, not all of them good. The former contractor, would-be construction magnate and budding restaurateur is currently facing, he estimates, “about 12” fraud, collusion and breach of trust charges for, among other things, his role in an alleged bid-rigging scheme in the Montreal suburb of Boisbriand. In April, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to subvert the outcome of a municipal election in that same community. Two days after Maclean’s met with him at the strip-mall pizzeria he now runs, Revenu Québec officials raided it in search of some $38,000 in unpaid taxes. And as the owner of the construction company Infrabec, he has, by his own admission, spent much of the last decade participating in a system that bilked taxpayers out of millions of dollars.

Yet it is precisely because of his misdeeds, or at least his willingness to talk about them under oath, that Zambito is something of a folk hero in Quebec these days. Subpoenaed on Sept. 5—one day after the Quebec election—by the commission investigating the province’s notorious construction industry, Zambito testified for eight days, and what came out of the tall, beefy 43-year-old’s mouth shocked a province and arguably brought a premature end to the careers of two big city mayors.

As a contractor in Montreal, Zambito says he participated in bid-rigging schemes involving the Rizzuto Mafia clan that usually culminated with mobsters stuffing wads of cash into their knee-high socks in the ill-lit backroom of a north end coffee shop. He not only kicked up a cut of his profits to those mobsters but also to various municipal and provincial political parties as well.

And when not currying favour with various provincial Liberal ministers, he was hosting their fundraising parties. He also testified he paid bribes to Gilles Vaillancourt, the long-serving mayor of the Montreal suburb of Laval. And he did it, he said, because fixing prices, paying off mobsters and making friends with politicians at various levels of government was the cost of being in the construction business in the province.

“Listen, at the beginning it’s a bit frustrating, but those are the rules,” Zambito says today. “You’re not happy? Pack your bags and go work elsewhere. You have to say, ‘Either I change business or I agree to do whatever I have to do.’ You don’t have many choices.”

He then shrugs his massive shoulders and sips Pizzeria Etcetera’s cappuccino. “The industry is sick. You oblige people to do criminal acts to work. It’s not like one guy in the industry does it. Everybody does it.”

“Everybody does it.” Since the beginning of the hearings into the industry, it might be a sticker slogan plastered on Quebec’s collective rear end—much to the horror of Quebecers themselves. Colloquially known as the Charbonneau commission, after France Charbonneau, the judge chairing it, these hearings have exposed deep, long-standing corruption within the construction industry.

And as titillating as they may be, tales of cash-stuffed envelopes are hardly the biggest problem facing Quebec, as far as corruption is concerned. It goes deeper than that, permeating the levers of political and industrial power in the province. Quebec’s protectionist labour laws, and insistence that all contracts be done in French, has effectively guaranteed an artificially small labour pool, along with limiting the number of construction companies able to bid on contracts.

Critics also say Quebec, through its laws and lack of oversight, has allowed large engineering consulting firms to wield incredible influence over both construction sites and political parties. All of this has contributed to the epic show of corruption and illicit party financing we are witnessing today.

Of the province’s 10 biggest engineering consulting firms, eight have been named during testimony. Four of them have had their offices raided by police in the last six weeks. The former president of SNC-Lavalin, by far the largest engineering firm in the province, was recently indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges. The development followed reports that the company paid $22.5 million to secure a contract to build McGill University’s new hospital, though the claims have not been proven.

Zambito lived through it all, from the grim-faced mobsters lording over Montreal to the virtual one-man government of Gilles Vaillancourt to the parallel, cash-only world of illicit political financing at the behest of these engineering consulting companies.

Today, lounging at one of his pizzeria’s tables, Zambito seems as worried about his safety as he is about those pending charges. That is to say, not very. “Yes, people thought I was going to get shot in the first couple of weeks, I admit,” he says. “But I’m not worried for myself. I did things correctly. I did what I had to do, I got caught, I gave my version of what happened with the goal that things will change in Quebec.”

He has told his story on the record, implicating everyone from mobsters to construction magnates to some of the most powerful political figures in the province. Far from cowering in fear of reprisals, Zambito has embraced his odd celebrity status, if not with gusto then at least with an obvious belief that he has done the right thing by admitting to his many wrongs as publicly as possible.

Zambito’s first construction contract was a long time coming. His father, Giuseppe, owned a construction company in Laval, and Zambito remembers being obsessed as a child with bulldozers, earth movers and other heavy machinery his father kept at his yards in Laval. In 1997, he cut short his law studies at the Université de Sherbrooke to join his father in running Infrabec, which specialized in civil engineering jobs. He began to look for contracts.

It wasn’t easy. “We came to realize that Montreal was a closed market,” Zambito testified in October. “I submitted bids in Laval, and it was closed as well. I submitted bids on the north shore [the suburbs north of Laval] and it was a closed market. We quickly realized that not any company could go work wherever it felt like.”

He ended up bidding on a small contract in Montreal—a “hermetically sealed” market, as he called it. To gain a foothold, he bid purposefully low, and in April 2000 found himself at Montreal’s historic Lantic Sugar refinery, replacing water pipes.

Montreal’s construction industry was insular long before Zambito, or even the Mafia, got involved. Through its labour and language laws, Quebec had both limited the number of companies able to bid on contracts and restricted the workforce putting shovels in the ground.

Quebec’s construction unions have the sole power to place workers on a given work site—a situation unique to the province. The construction union federations, of which FTQ-Construction is the largest, dictate which workers go to what sites. This, critics argue, gives the unions far too much power and allows for favouritism within the industry.

“It means that if you get a contract, you can’t necessarily get the manpower to get the job done,” says former Montreal police chief and anti-corruption squad head Jacques Duchesneau. “I got a lot of emails from anglophones who went through this. Union representatives can make life miserable.”

Language has been a barrier in other ways. In a 2010 report, Duchesneau singles out the fact that all contracts must be in French, for “limiting competition and ensuring higher prices throughout the manufacturing, distribution and contracting chain.”

Finally, there is the issue of the labour movement within Quebec. Simply put, it is difficult for anyone outside of Quebec to work in the province—this despite a housing boom in Montreal and its suburbs and massive development in the province’s north. A 2009 labour mobility agreement between Ontario and Quebec was meant to assuage what both governments saw as a labour shortage in their respective provinces; the easy cross-border flow of labour envisioned has yet to materialize.

“There is a huge labour shortage in Quebec,” says Luc Martin, vice-president of Corporation des entrepreneurs généraux du Québec, which represents the province’s building contractors. “But the unions say we have enough. They say we just have to pay overtime.”

It was into this uniquely fraught climate at the start of the last decade that Zambito began his education in the way business was done.

Former city inspector Luc Leclerc, who admitted in testimony to pocketing kickbacks, remembers paying Zambito a visit not long after he’d broken ground on his first Montreal contract in 2000.

During the meeting, over wine and cigars, Zambito became keenly aware he wasn’t welcome on the island of Montreal when he was informed his “friends” in the industry weren’t happy that he dared bid on contracts they felt were rightfully theirs. Bravado seems to drip from his every pore, though, so if Leclerc’s friendly warning put him off, he didn’t show it. “I’ll face the music when it’s time to face the music,” Zambito said to Leclerc.

Having lowballed his way into an otherwise impenetrable market, Zambito says he suddenly found himself both beholden to and beneficiary of three well-established forces in the Montreal construction industry: corrupt city officials, the Italian Mafia and Union Montréal, the party of Gérald Tremblay, who recently stepped down as mayor of Montreal. The first came in the form of Leclerc, as well as city engineer Gilles Surprenant.

A friendly-looking fellow who sports a goatee and a perpetually bemused look, Surprenant testified that by 2000 he had practically made an art out of inflating the cost of city contracts; he became so good at it that by 2011 an outside auditor found that Montreal typically paid upwards of 30 per cent more for work on its sidewalks, water piping and sewage systems. The auditor dubbed it “L’effet Surprenant”—literally, the surprising effect.

Leclerc, meanwhile, took care of the “fake extras.” As the supervising engineer on many city projects, Leclerc was in charge of overseeing each contract’s “contingency fees,” or payments for unforeseen work—and he worked diligently (and for a fee) to liberate them without any work being done. Zambito, Surprenant and Leclerc all testified that 2.5 per cent of each contract’s value went to organized crime, another of Zambito’s new realities once he entered Montreal’s construction industry.

The distribution centre for this cash-only business was Café Consenza, in a white-bricked strip mall. More church basement and less velvet-draped clubhouse of Mafia lore, Consenza was where Nicolo and Vito Rizzuto and company met to divvy up the cash kicked up to them by the various construction firms. In 2004 the RCMP installed cameras to tape the proceedings in Café Consenza’s two back rooms. The results are a banal but sometimes enthralling narrative of how the Mafia’s cash-harvesting operation works.

For two years, the RCMP cameras recorded images of these 10-minute rituals, in which Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., Rizzuto associate Rocco Sollecito and Nicolo Milioto sort money pulled from a satchel into five piles—a reference, according to Montreal police organized-crime investigator Eric Vecchio, of the five heads of the contract-rigging network. The three in the room would laugh and gesticulate. And then they would take the stacks and tuck them into their socks.

The contractors themselves would often stop by the café to drop off wads of cash—including Zambito, who in one video hovers in a black leather jacket, looking like he could be Jay Leno’s brutish cousin. By that point, around 2004 and 2005, Zambito and nine other companies controlled who did what and at what price to the water, drainage and sewer pipes servicing the 1.8 million people living on the island of Montreal.

Zambito also testified he met Quebec construction magnate Tony Accurso at a Laval restaurant in the early 2000s. The subject of the meeting was a $25-million contract Zambito was looking at, and which Accurso wanted. Vito Rizzuto mediated the disagreement. Zambito backed off the contract following the meeting. (Accurso denied the meeting happened.)

The 61-year-old Accurso looms large over the industry; he and his children, Jimmy and Lisa, control 63 construction and real estate companies in the province, according to an anti-corruption squad analysis. Accurso, who didn’t respond to an interview request, is currently facing multiple fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust and influence peddling charges. By the size of his operations alone, he is indispensable to the industry; according to a 2012 La Presse report, Accurso’s companies receive upwards of 80 per cent of the public sector contracts in the province.

That domination is in large part due to FTQ-Construction, the province’s biggest construction federation.

Accurso was close with Louis Laberge, one of the FTQ’s storied leaders, and the friendship proved fruitful: through Fonds FTQ, its financing and investment arm established in 1983, the FTQ invested heavily in Accurso’s businesses in the early 1980s. It was a mutually beneficial relationship: Accurso’s businesses grew exponentially, while the Fonds FTQ enjoyed a booming return on its investment.

Yet there was an apparent conflict of interest in the relationship between the province’s largest union organization and its largest construction magnate. Because it controls labour placement, the FTQ can favour the companies in which it has invested, if only to see its own rate of return rise. It’s exactly what happened in Accurso’s case, says Duchesneau. “With the FTQ and Accurso, it wasn’t just money, but manpower. The FTQ invested in him, and in order to get their return on investment, they made sure that Accurso got the manpower he needed.” (FTQ spokesperson Patrick McQuilken didn’t return an interview request.)

By 2007, Zambito was cementing other relationships of his own. He regularly met with Nicolo Milioto, an intimidating bald man with big ears and dark eyes, to hand over his 2.5 per cent to the Mafia. Beginning in 2005, Milioto began extracting another three per cent for “the political party of Gérald Tremblay,” Zambito testified that Milioto told him.

Tremblay vociferously denied Zambito’s allegations—“My conscience is at peace,” he said during an ensuing press conference. Yet in the days following Zambito’s testimony the commission heard from former Union Montréal fundraiser Martin Dumont, who testified that he had to help the party’s chief fundraiser Bernard Trépanier, known as “Mr. Three per cent,” close a safe overflowing with cash. There is no evidence the cash was collected illegally, but Tremblay resigned a week later.

Ditto Gilles Vaillancourt, who resigned in early November not long after Zambito said the Laval mayor pressed him into making a $25,000 contribution so Infrabec’s contigency fees would be approved. Vaillancourt was quick to deny this—only to have police raid his safety deposit boxes nine days later.

If Zambito found municipal contracts to be lucrative, they were nothing compared to the potential windfall that could be earned from the provincial government. Starting at around the same time of his first municipal job in 2000, he bid on his first contract with Transports Québec, and was working regularly with the transport ministry by 2007, when Jean Charest’s government launched a five-year, $16-billion plan to revamp the province’s roadwork.

By then Zambito was also working with some of Canada’s most powerful engineering consulting firms and raising money for the Parti Québécois and the now-defunct ADQ. The lion’s share of his fundraising efforts, though, were for the Quebec Liberal party. It was in this line of work, Zambito figured out, where the real hustle was.

Zambito’s entrance into provincial government contracts meant spending a significant amount of time raising money for political parties at the behest of various large engineering consulting firms. “It became redundant. One week we were seen at Liberal functions; the week after it was the ADQ; two weeks later it was the Parti Québécois. It was always the same business people who would attend,” Zambito testified in October.

These firms constantly asked Zambito for $3,000 cheques—the maximum political donation per person, according to Quebec electoral law. The firms, he said, would pay him back by granting “false extras” on the contracts he received from them. Zambito wrote cheques in the name of his employees and his parents. Even his wife—who was “beyond apolitical,” Zambito says—became a loyal donor to the Quebec Liberal party.

As with corporate donations, the practice of “prête-noms,” or writing a cheque to a political party in someone else’s name, is forbidden under Quebec electoral law. Yet witnesses appearing at the commission, Zambito included, have named eight of the 10 largest génie-conseil firms in connection with allegedly nefarious campaign financing charges.

These engineering firms have essentially taken over the planning and management of the province’s road construction work. And yet, in most cases, they don’t compete with each other for government contracts—not in the usual sense, anyway. That’s because the laws in Quebec were such that a company’s reputation and experience were weighed when awarding contracts; price was a lesser concern. By 2008, price considerations were stripped out altogether, to remove the urge to cut corners. But over time critics say this transformed the bidding process into a pure lobbying exercise. “What’s the message that you give to those firms who are all good at their jobs?” asks Luc Martin of the Corporation des entrepreneurs généraux du Québec. “It’s no surprise they are close to government, because they have to lobby it.”

Which is why Zambito’s testimony about his party financing activities alarmed observers. Over several days he named a number of high-level Liberal ministers and party members as being recipients of his largesse. He testified that he helped organize fundraisers for Nathalie Normandeau, then Quebec’s deputy premier, at the behest of Genivar, an engineering consulting firm, and for former labour minister David Whissell, on behalf of BPR, another firm. Meanwhile, he testified he gave $30,000 to a fundraising event in the spring of 2009 for senior minister Line Beauchamp, well in excess of the legal donation limit.

As for Normandeau, Zambito testified he sent her 40 roses for her 40th birthday. “Dear Lino, it is with pleasure that I received your magnificent flowers for my birthday,” she wrote in a note. “You have helped make this day ever more beautiful.” Zambito would soon follow up with nine tickets to a Céline Dion concert. Normandeau, Whissell and Beauchamp have all denied any wrongdoing, while the two firms, Genivar and BPR, refused to comment to Maclean’s.

“I fixed contracts, I financed political parties, I corrupted bureaucrats,” Zambito told the commission. “But the system is such that if I wanted to work in Laval, Montreal, on the north shore or for the ministry, I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

In October 2009, the Radio-Canada investigative program Enquête broadcast a piece on Zambito’s attempts to influence the municipal election in Boisbriand, where he’d landed several contracts. Zambito’s career as a fraudster, fundraiser and political hanger-on had come to an end.

Undoubtedly, the noise emerging from the commission has hurt Quebec’s already-damaged reputation. “There is something rotten in the Kingdom of Quebec,” wrote a Le Devoir columnist. Some turned to satire. Comedian Guy Nantel’s next show, entitled Corrompu (Corrupted), will make light of its misery next summer. Judge Charbonneau will have tabled her recommendations by the end of Corrompu’s run, in fall 2013.

There are other rays of sunshine. For all this misery, Montreal (and Quebec in general) has weathered the economic crisis better than most of North America. The city’s real estate market is doing quite well, thanks in part to a condo boom in the last five years. Last year, the Liberal government tabled legislation ending the practice of union labour placement. The PQ, despite its ties to the labour movement, has warily accepted the law.

And there’s precedent. “New York and Chicago had problems with corruption, too. Not to say they don’t anymore, but it was dramatically reduced by commissions like the one we are having,” says Michel Leblanc, president of Montreal’s chamber of commerce. “If the government implements Charbonneau’s recommendations, then new systems will be in place to get rid of corruption.”

And Zambito? When he isn’t posing with fans or getting propositioned by married women—he’s become quite popular since testifying—the man who exposed the rot in Quebec’s construction industry spends his time running the restaurant. He wasn’t entirely saddened when Infrabec went bankrupt in 2011. “The restaurant’s a different ball game,” he says. “People are out to enjoy, to pass an evening with their family. Every client is your boss.” An added bonus: these bosses don’t expect bribes.

Called out

Of the 10 largest engineering firms in Quebec, eight have been named in testimony at the Charbonneau commission related to political financing irregularities

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-foundation-of-corruption/feed/1Old report surfaces, shows Montreal warned years ago about inflated costshttps://www.macleans.ca/general/old-report-surfaces-shows-montreal-warned-years-ago-about-inflated-costs/
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:54:47 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=314082MONTREAL – The City of Montreal has released a report that suggests the municipality knew years ago that it was significantly overpaying for construction projects, perhaps by more than 30…

]]>MONTREAL – The City of Montreal has released a report that suggests the municipality knew years ago that it was significantly overpaying for construction projects, perhaps by more than 30 per cent.

In response to allegations that municipal officials were hiding old documents, the city released a half-dozen reports commissioned since 2004.

The 2004 report stated that Montreal was a closed market when it came to construction, with contracts going to the same half-dozen companies over and over.

The current city manager, Guy Hebert, says action began being taken in 2009 with a number of measures designed to prevent collusion and corruption in the awarding of municipal contracts.

A report in 2006 made a lengthy list of suggestions on how to deal with the potential problem. Hebert says those recommendations are in effect today.

The existence of the reports came to light last week when the city’s second most-powerful politician, Michael Applebaum, quit as chairman of the executive committee.

He expressed frustration with his colleagues over their decision to delay releasing the report until after city council meets to select an interim mayor this week.

Applebaum was also upset that colleagues refused his proposal to scale back planned property tax hikes; he said taxpayers were justifiably angry about waste and corruption and didn’t deserve a planned 3.3 per cent tax increase.

Applebaum had another reason to be miffed with his colleagues: he was passed over as his party’s choice for interim mayor. The city council will pick a temporary replacement for Gerald Tremblay, who recently resigned as part of the fallout from a corruption controversy.

]]>Isn’t it time to wise up to the wise guys?https://www.macleans.ca/general/isnt-it-time-to-wise-up-to-the-wise-guys/
https://www.macleans.ca/general/isnt-it-time-to-wise-up-to-the-wise-guys/#commentsFri, 09 Nov 2012 10:00:01 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=312466Paul Wells on the (non)response of MPs to an epidemic of corruption, kickbacks and death threats

Perhaps clarification is in order. The most important career change in Montreal this week was not the resignation of Gérald Tremblay, who from 2001 until Monday sat in the office usually reserved for the city’s mayor. By his own admission, Tremblay was a kind of lucky tourist, mostly unaware of the rampant corruption in Montreal and entirely unable to control it. “I asked the public servants and the councillors why I had not been informed about this,” he said, and, “I fought—often alone,” and, “I would have expected a more attentive and more urgent hearing from the government.”

Off he goes. Sad story. Wave bye-bye. But let us not be distracted. The most important career change in Montreal this week happened when Joe Di Maulo’s bullet-riddled body smacked the driveway outside his home in the genteel suburb of Blainville and, a short time after, assumed the temperature of the tarmac. I nominate Di Maulo, post mortem, as Montreal’s real mayor, because there seems to have been very little in that city which happened without his knowledge and approval.

Ever since somebody hid outside Nicolo “Zio Cola” Rizzuto’s home in 2010 and sent the 86-year-old Mob boss to his maker with a shot from a sniper rifle, Di Maulo had become part of a group struggling to control organized crime activity in Montreal, which is, you know, a lot of activity. And bad things kept happening to the rest of the group. Here I am indebted to ace Montreal Gazettecrime reporter Paul Cherry for the details: Salvatore “Sal the Ironworker” Montagna was murdered last autumn. Antonio “Tony Suzuki” Pietrantonio was shot soon after, but survived. Di Maulo, a lifer whose name appears in Mob histories dating back to the ’60s, managed to stay neutral among factions. “If you had a problem, you went to see Joe,” La Presse reporter Daniel Renaud was told by one of his sources.

I don’t know anyone in Montreal who went to see Gérald if he had a problem. Two Quebec government cabinet ministers said Tremblay was a wise man to resign. But Joe Di Maulo was a wise guy for 40 years, so I’m going to have to give it to him on points.

I’m afraid I have no information for you about how all this news affected the emotions of the House of Commons.

In fact, we’ve had no formal update on the collective emotional state of Parliament’s lower house since 2010. On Sept. 29 of that year, after this magazine ran a cover story calling Quebec the most corrupt province in Canada, the lower house of Parliament voted unanimously, more or less, to express “its profound sadness at the prejudice displayed and the stereotypes employed by Maclean’s magazine to denigrate the Quebec nation, its history and its institutions.”

That was the week we ran a cover photo of Bonhomme Carnaval carrying a satchel stuffed with cash next to the headline “The most corrupt province in Canada.” The articles inside detailed precisely the sort of goings-on that led directly to Tremblay’s comically belated resignation.

You’ll note your MPs’ selective sense of woe. It’s not the epidemic of corruption, kickbacks, contract-fixing, influence-peddling and death threats that brought a cloud into their sunny day. It was our insouciance in pointing all of this out. Joe Di Maolo was an institution in the Quebec nation, indisputably part of its history. What’s the proper way to describe his work and legacy? Which prejudices and stereotypes should be avoided?

And what business was this of parliamentarians in the first place? No offence, guys and ladies, but you are lousy editors. When Nic Rizzuto took a bullet, not a peep. When Sal the Ironworker and Tony Suzuki went down hard, the House of Commons had nothing to say. Testimony at the Charbonneau commission reveals that mobsters’ favoured method for disposing of wads of cash from their construction-industry interlocutors was to stuff them down their socks. Thousands of dollars. Stacks of bills. But when Montreal’s finer menswear establishments started selling hip waders in the hosiery section, not a peep from your local member of Parliament.

It’d be nice to hear a hint of remorse from MPs who used your time and our name to strike a pose two years ago, but I’m not holding my breath for an apology. The time they spent rapping our knuckles was time they could have spent improving the country. Tom Mulcair bragged later about how he was the one who came up with the “profoundly saddened” comment. But as soon as we put his mug on the cover instead of Bonhomme’s, he was buying Maclean’s by the armful. I’m glad we cheered him up, at least.

It is at last possible to hope the epidemic of corruption in Quebec construction and politics is nearing an end. Good work by reporters, police and clean politicians is driving out bad work by too many others. I wonder whether the disarray in the Mafia is a sign that the cozy protection racket is falling apart. But too many politicians spent too much time looking the other way, which made them part of the protection racket.

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/general/isnt-it-time-to-wise-up-to-the-wise-guys/feed/26Does being in politics mean never having to say you’re sorry?https://www.macleans.ca/politics/does-being-in-politics-mean-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry/
https://www.macleans.ca/politics/does-being-in-politics-mean-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry/#commentsFri, 09 Nov 2012 10:00:01 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=312458Two years after our cover story provoked a defensive uproar, evidence of the deep-seated corruption has continued to pile up

Two years ago, a Maclean’s cover declared Quebec “The Most Corrupt Province in Canada.” In the story inside, Quebec bureau chief Martin Patriquin presented a litany of examples, both historical and current-day, revealing the deep-seated record of corruption running through municipal, provincial and federal governance in the province.

We never argued Quebec was the only province to be visited by corruption or compromised politicians, merely that the scale and persistence on display in La Belle Province outdid anything we could find elsewhere. We argued further that this record constituted a tremendous disservice to honest Quebec taxpayers. Finally, we noted the heartening provincial tradition of promptly tossing out elected officials tainted by scandal.

The reaction to our efforts at lifting the veil on corruption in Quebec and encouraging voters to clean house? We were viciously and repeatedly attacked in numerous and unprecedented ways.

Quebec nationalists claimed our evidence was “hateful and defamatory.” Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe said we were “xenophobic.” A public letter from then premier Jean Charest argued we had met “none of the basic standards of journalism” and demanded we apologize to the entire province.

And in an extremely rare (as in once or twice every hundred years) move, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion of censure against us, declaring “this House . . . expresses its profound sadness at the prejudice displayed and the stereotypes employed by Maclean’s magazine to denigrate the Quebec nation, its history and its institutions.” While the motion was sponsored by the BQ, it received tacit support from the Conservative government. It was a reprehensible all-party effort at stifling free and open debate in the media.

Finally, even our parent company, Rogers Publishing, expressed its “regret” over any offence that our cover may have caused—the cover illustration being an editorial cartoon of the Quebec Winter Carnival’s Bonhomme carrying a briefcase overflowing with cash. (To be clear, we said nothing to disparage the Carnival, nor did we suggest in any way that it was connected to the story about corruption.)

So, has anything interesting happened on this file since then?

Two years after our cover story provoked such a defensive uproar, evidence of the deep-seated and shocking level of corruption embedded in the Quebec political culture has continued to pile up. If anything, the details are getting more sordid.

After long resisting an inquiry into the allegations contained in our cover story—and attempting to turn the entire issue into evidence of our alleged xenophobia—last year Charest finally called the Charbonneau commission into “the provision and management of public contracts in the construction industry.” The details thus revealed support for everything we outlined, including testimony about brown envelopes of cash to city engineers, systematic bid-rigging, illegal campaign contributions and plenty more. It’s not mere happenstance that road construction in Quebec costs 30 per cent more per kilometre than in any other province. It is proof of ingrained corruption.

Charest then chose to call an election rather than face a completed Charbonneau report. Not only did the Liberals lose this past September, but Charest himself was tossed from his own seat in Sherbrooke. As we said before, Quebec may be the most corrupt province in the country, but time and again its voters have demonstrated little patience for scandal-plagued politicians. The same thing occurred with the federal Liberals following the sponsorship outrage.

And this week Montreal’s long-serving mayor, Gérald Tremblay, resigned abruptly. Tremblay has long insisted he knew nothing of the corruption rife within his administration. Perhaps. His political adversaries claim his sin was one of “wilful blindness.” Regardless, the Charbonneau inquiry recently heard a story from a former political staffer regarding a safe at Tremblay’s Union Montreal headquarters that was so tightly packed with dollar bills that the door required several people to heave it shut.

Given the preponderance of evidence—the mayor of Laval is currently on sick leave and is also expected to resign shortly after repeated police raids on his home and office—is there now any doubt Quebec fully deserves the title we awarded it in September 2010? And if it is the most corrupt province in the country, what of the trumped-up outrage over our efforts to make all this public knowledge two years ago?

Members of Parliament once claimed “profound sadness” over our coverage of Quebec politics. Surely mounting and incontrovertible evidence that Quebec politics is indeed deeply riven by corruption, bribes and assorted other illegal activities ought to make them feel even sadder. Perhaps a motion is in order.

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/politics/does-being-in-politics-mean-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry/feed/14An unsinkable mayor torpedoed by Quebec’s corruption scandalshttps://www.macleans.ca/general/an-unsinkable-mayor-torpedoed-by-quebecs-corruption-scandals/
https://www.macleans.ca/general/an-unsinkable-mayor-torpedoed-by-quebecs-corruption-scandals/#commentsThu, 25 Oct 2012 00:33:23 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=306975LAVAL, Que. – Quebec’s corruption scandals may have torpedoed the career of a politician who, over a reign of more than two decades, appeared unsinkable.
If so, the province may…

]]>LAVAL, Que. – Quebec’s corruption scandals may have torpedoed the career of a politician who, over a reign of more than two decades, appeared unsinkable.

If so, the province may now have its highest-profile political casualty from all its ongoing scandals.

Gilles Vaillancourt, the mayor of Laval, Que., says he’s temporarily stepping aside and will consider what to do next. The sudden announcement at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday came just hours after the latest raids by the province’s anti-corruption squad.

Vaillancourt says the move is prompted by doctor’s advice — not by search warrants.

“You will understand that in recent weeks a number of events have created a very painful situation that has affected the mayor’s life,” said a statement from the municipality, the third-largest in Quebec.

“As a result of this and on the advice of his doctor, the mayor has decided to take a break to rediscover the peace of mind necessary to enter a period of reflection.

“He will soon be able to share with you the fruits of that reflection.”

The 71-year-old mayor has had an iron grip on the city administration since 1989; he faced almost no opposition in an era where the once-sleepy Montreal suburb transformed into one of the fastest-growing communities in the province. He has a year left in his latest mandate.

The announcement came after yet more police raids.

A spokeswoman for the provincial police anti-corruption unit said the raids had been carried out at different financial institutions.

But she wouldn’t confirm reports that the targets were safety-deposit boxes linked to Vaillancourt. One report by Radio-Canada linked the police raids to enormous amounts of cash — “tens of millions of dollars” — held in overseas accounts.

Police have already raided two of Vaillancourt’s residences and his offices at city hall.

Vaillancourt has been hit with allegations of bribery in recent years but has angrily denied them.

A witness at the current Quebec corruption inquiry has accused him of taking kickbacks in exchange for construction contracts, and different political players have come forward over the years to accuse Vaillancourt of offering them illegal cash payments.

None of those claims have been proven in court, and Vaillancourt has challenged them.

In past elections, Vaillancourt has been re-elected with crushing majorities.

In 2009, he took more than 60 per cent of the vote — nearly triple the score of his closest challenger and more than all his opponents combined. He did even better in 2005, winning 74 per cent of the vote in a field of four candidates.

]]>Mike Amato looks every bit like the cop he is: big, broad-shouldered, bullet-headed, with a near-palpable unease with sitting behind a desk and being asked questions. Yet for two hours Amato did just this, as the 25-year-veteran of the York Regional Police testified for the so-called Charbonneau Commission, the Quebec government’s investigation into corruption within the province’s construction industry. Amato, who has spent the last 15 years working in York’s organized crime division, was the second expert to outline the broad strokes of the mafia’s reach and power in Italy and abroad—and the first to offer context and comparison with Quebec’s perpetual sparring partner that is Ontario. Yet anyone wanting to know whether one province is more mobbed up than the other—and there are certainly those who want to do just that—was left guessing with his testimony.

Thankfully, Amato was clear-eyed enough to provide analysis of Ontario’s mafia, not opinion on the perpetual pissing match between the two provinces. He said the first instances of the mafia’s presence in Ontario date back to 1911 in a report prepared for the City of Toronto, in which a shopkeeper killed a man; he did so, he told police after, because the man was collecting protection money from him and, as Amato put it, was “worried about his safety and that of his family in Italy.” The man was acquitted of killing a member of the mafia.

Today’s mafia is a very different beast than in the early 1900s when, as Amato noted, mobbed-up types were stealing cattle along with threatening lowly shopkeepers into buying protection. It is a modern and rather open mafia that has replaced the Godfather-style version of the mob, with “a bunch of old guys sitting around smoking cigars and playing cards,” as Amato put it. Mobsters now wear suits, work nine-to-five, and have legitimate jobs. They donate to charity. They are keenly self-aware and worried about their self-image. “There are people who have criminal records, they’re suspects in murders, who are great soccer coaches for kids,” Amato said. And as constrained as it may be by blood lines, the Mafia has nonetheless become a franchise of sorts stemming from Italy to Canada, the U.S. and beyond. “This is an organization that is as wealthy as the Rothchilds. They know they don’t have to meet at someone’s house anymore. If they want to they can buy a first class ticket to Geneva and talk there,” Amato said, adding, “As a police officer it is very difficult to follow this.”

Ontario Mafioso is discreet, near-silent, and willing to cooperate with fellow families and cartels in the interests of making money and keeping out of the public eye. “They operate with no conflict because that means we don’t investigate them,” Amato says. “In Quebec and Ontario, they co-exist in markets, whether it’s drugs or gambling. It’s better to share and co-exist.”

Amato was relatively mum on the hot-button topic of the week: whether Ontario’s construction industry was as mobbed up as Quebec’s. “There are persons we are aware of that are in the construction industry,” he said, rather obliquely. “They’re in trucking, excavation. They are home builders.” Certainly, though, Ontario’s construction industry is as sweet a plum as it is anywhere else, for one simple reason: it is a capital-intensive industry where oodles of cash can be scrubbed. “They’ll be in any business where thy can earn money,” he said. A Mafioso can sink the $2 million he made selling coke into a construction company and undercut legitimate business because he cares less about profit than he does about making his dirty money clean again. “How can you compete against someone who doesn’t care about making a profit?”

The commission is off tomorrow and resumes Monday with a promise of more interesting witnesses.

]]>https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/ontario-detective-talks-mafia-quebec-listens/feed/2Quebec construction inquiry hears about Mafia corruption in Ontariohttps://www.macleans.ca/general/quebec-construction-inquiry-hears-about-mafia-corruption-in-ontario/
https://www.macleans.ca/general/quebec-construction-inquiry-hears-about-mafia-corruption-in-ontario/#commentsThu, 20 Sep 2012 19:17:29 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=295802MONTREAL – A veteran Ontario detective has testified in a public inquiry that the Italian Mafia’s reach in that province extends to all kinds of legitimate businesses that mask criminal…

]]>MONTREAL – A veteran Ontario detective has testified in a public inquiry that the Italian Mafia’s reach in that province extends to all kinds of legitimate businesses that mask criminal proceeds.

Mike Amato, a detective with the York Regional police, testified Thursday before the Quebec inquiry looking into allegations of corruption in the province’s construction industry.

Called to provide a portrait of the reach and scope of the Italian Mafia in Ontario, Amato described a group that, over the years, has managed to root itself deeply into everyday society.

The veteran officer says the modern-day Mafioso is dressed in business suits, works 9-to-5 hours and holds jobs ranging from banker, to accountant to bus driver.

“They think it’s a bunch of old guys smoking cigars, playing cards in a coffee shop, and that’s not the modern-day Mafia,” Amato told the Charbonneau Commission.

“They hold meetings in restaurants, they do not operate in the dark and they operate in the light amongst us.”

Amato said Mafia-controlled legitimate businesses in his region include everything from garden centres to financial institutions to banquet halls.

“They need these businesses to launder criminal proceeds,” Amato said. “It also allows them to explain their wealth … you can mask it in a business where you can hide your illegitimate wealth.”

Amato, who has worked for a quarter-century in law enforcement and the last six as an intelligence officer gathering information on the Mob, says many players have managed to legitimize themselves over time.

Amato said some of the young criminals police used to collar in their 20s have, decades later, transformed themselves into businessmen who operate a regular business.

Ontario boasts many of the hallmark Mob industries — smuggling, drug trafficking and bookmaking. Then there are more modern ones such as stock manipulation.

“As we evolve as a society, so too does organized crime,” Amato said.

“They are just sometimes a little bit quicker, better and faster at it than we are.”

What’s noticeable about Ontario, Amato says, is a lack of the same level of visible violence as has been seen in recent years in Quebec and witnesses who are willing to testify about it.

“If there is numerous murders, a lot of violence, if there are a lot of bombings, it attracts attention from politicians, from the community, from police,” Amato said.

“You cannot build a successful criminal enterprise if you’re continually being investigated by the police.”

Any tensions in that province have been mostly resolved quietly or away from the reach of law enforcement.

And in Ontario, that has meant it’s difficult to justify digging deeper, Amato says. Whereas a few dozen police officers may have investigated the Mob in the past, now there might be a handful.

The detective said the reach in Ontario extends to certain construction-related industries like trucking, home-building and excavation — and added that these businesses are difficult to compete against because they are infused with illegal cash.

“How can you compete against someone where it doesn’t matter if he turns a profit on the job,” said Amato.

Amato’s testimony followed reports this week by Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star that suggested the secretive Calabrian Mob sits atop the criminal food chain in Canada.

A former RCMP chief superintendent, Ben Soave, told both media organizations that organized crime has infiltrated Ontario’s economy at least as much as it has in Quebec.

That prompted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to demand proof for such claims.

Amato did not directly address the report in his testimony on Thursday. He said that in terms of sheer numbers, the ‘Ndrangheta, or the Calabrian Mafia, is the strongest group in Ontario.

The Cosa Nostra, or Sicilian Mafia, also has some presence in Ontario and both groups tend to co-exist. To a lesser extent, the Camorra (originating from Naples) also has a presence in Ontario.

The Calabrian Mob is believed to have a strong influence in Ontario. The Sicilian Mafia, notably the Rizzuto family, is based out of Montreal.

Amato noted that Ontario and Quebec Mafia groups have tended to mainly co-exist. An RCMP investigation into the Quebec Mafia showed that in some instances, Ontario clans invested in Quebec schemes.

“They are not necessarily in competing markets but they both co-exist in markets they both enjoy, whether it’s drug trafficking, whether it’s gambling,” Amato said.